On May 20, JP Howell returned from the disabled list and pitched for the Rays for the first time since 2009. But when Howell delivered his first pitch, we hardly recognized him. and we aren’t talking about the new mop top…

Notice how lazy the delivery is. The delivery is simple. Not a lot of wasted motion. He is not falling down to the right after the delivery. This was not the JP Howell we remembered.

And the results weren’t familiar either. In his first five appearances, Howell gave up 8 hits and 10 runs (7 earned) in just 3.1 innings.

But then on Tuesday, he was again called on. Only this time, things looked a little different. It was a new JP Howell. Only this one looked an awful lot like the old JP Howell.

Now, THAT looks familiar. The result was two strikeouts of the two batters he faced.